


Something Seems Strange

by P_Artsypants



Series: Of Mustard and Three Foot Purple Tongues [10]
Category: Teen Titans - All Media Types
Genre: Body Swap, F/M, Unfinished
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-11
Updated: 2018-11-11
Packaged: 2019-08-21 22:53:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16585826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/P_Artsypants/pseuds/P_Artsypants
Summary: Puppeteer is back at it again, but this time, things get awkward. (Up for adoption)





	Something Seems Strange

**Author's Note:**

> I charged up my old iPod and found this gem from 2013, or 2057 days ago. I don't know how it was supposed to end, but it made me giggle. So I'm posting it to my collection.

Robin paced back and forth. He was in the evidence room, and in recent events, panicking. The puppet masters cross bar had gone missing...or what was left of the cross bar. The only person that could have cared about it would be the puppet master himself, and since he technically died...all this was confusing the poor leader. So they were soon to face a zombie puppet? Not exactly fun. He knew Starfire hated zombies.

He thought about her again. With a great sigh, he made a tally mark on the whiteboard across the room. He narrowed his eyes at the number. 34. He was partially conducting an experiment after Beast Boy bet him he couldn't NOT think about Starfire for a whole day. He had failed miserably, to say the least. Now he was keeping tabs to see often he thought of her in a hour. Shamefully, the number was higher then he wanted it to be.

The door to the evidence room swished open. "Robin, Cyborg has made up the ingredients for the 'BLT' sandwiches, if you are hungry."

"Thanks Star, I'll be there in a moment." He said as he marked another tally.

She observed the whiteboard as she stood behind him. "What are you counting?"

"Oh just conducting an experiment. Nothing exciting." He believed that his excuses were getting better.

"You look distressed, is something wrong?"

He didn't want to tell her about his recent discovery of missing evidence. "No, just your typical hero stress." He smiled nervously.

"I see...well I will see you in the commons, momentarily."

"Kay, bye..." He smiled as she left, as soon as the door closed, he made ten more tallies.

Starfire rubbed her chin outside the door. He was definitely hiding something. If he was experimenting, he usually told her, no matter how boring. Possibly she could ask Raven to find out, but that would really be against his privacy. If only she could get inside his head!

Robin made his BLT sans tomato and mayo. With extra bacon. Starfire added mustard and tapioca pudding. Usually, Robin would have taken his food and eaten in his room, while he went over clues, but he needed a moment to clear his head...and get away from that damned whiteboard.

"Something wrong Robin?" Raven asked.

Starfire perked up, even Raven had sensed it, she had to be right.

"Uh...sort of...not sure...probably not very serious."

"Well, can you tell us?"

"Um..." He sighed. "Puppet Master's cross bar is missing."

The team looked puzzled. "So he's back?"

"Like I said, I don't know. Don't worry about it too much guys."

Starfire pouted. That didn't explain the marks on the board. "What was the counting for then? On your board?"

He turned a hundred shades of red while he stuttered. Beast Boy caught on quick and laughed jovially. "Dude! Seriously!?"

"If you say anything, so help me, I  _will_ kill you!"

"Robin? What does he speak of?"

"Yeah, what is the green bean laughing about?" Beast Boy leaned over and whispered into his ear. Cyborg lost in and started hitting the table. "You dog! How many times?!"

"I don't have to answer that."

"Come on Robby! You can tell us! We won't say anything."

Robin mumbled something incoherent.

"What? We can't hear you."

"Forty-five."

"Woow. Over how long?"

"...an hour."

Beast Boy whistled. "My friend, you have a problem."

"A problem?" Starfire asked concerned. "Is he sick? Something is wrong with him?" She felt his forehead as his face turned redder and redder.

"Yes, I think he's VERY sick."

His gaze was like daggers.

"Oh Robin! Your forehead is burning!"

Cyborg and Beast Boy were trying so hard to not laugh at his misfortune. But that only consisted of Beast Boy biting his lip, looking at the ceiling and stomping his feet. Cyborg snorted uncontrollably while pounding his fist on the table. Raven used her powers to keep her tea from falling over.

"What is the matter with our friends today? Is everyone sick? Is it contagious?!"

Cyborg cleared away his laughter to answer, "nah Star, Rob's the only sick one here...although, you may have caught it already."

"Oh X'hal! No! My immune system is not equipped to fight off earthen viruses! I may die!"

A fresh round of giggles went up from the two boys.

"Why do you laugh?! This is not funny!"

"Star, they're kidding! It's not a real sickness!"

"What? So you have a fictional disease?"

"Yeah..."

"Then you shall not have my sympathy." To Robin's relief, she finally let him go. And stormed out of the room.

"I hope you guys are proud of yourselves."

"Immensely."

Starfire stormed into her room, anger boiling out of her. Cyborg and Beast Boy knew how she felt about Robin but they were so bent on teasing her, sometimes she couldn't tell when they were being serious. Her lip quivered. She had acted like such the 'dork' in front of him. And he had looked so embarrassed! She felt awful. She hoped Beast Boy and Cyborg did too. If only she hadn't taken up that bet with Cyborg. She knew she couldn't go a whole day without thinking about Robin. He was much too dreamy. She looked in the mirror across the room.

"You are pathetic and a hopeless romantic." She nodded. "I am and I am not ashamed." She pulled the sheet of notebook paper she had in her pocket and boxed the four dots she had drawn. That indicated in a Tamaranian counting system that she had thought of Robin a total of thirty seven times within the last hour. She sighed. "Why is it so hard for me to tell him how I feel? I tell him everything else!...maybe it is because I know he will not receive me well...we have a job first and foremost to do. That is why he works so hard. I just wished it was easier." She gave a melodramatic sigh.

Later that night, an intruder made it into the building. The security system didn't pick up a block of wood as a living thing.

The puppet master was back, just as Robin predicted, and wanted to reap revenge on the Titans for what they had done to him. He started with the two rooms closest to the common room. Starfire and Robin.

Starfire was laying upside down on her bed, as usual. Her essence was drawn out and she fell, slacked. Robin was asleep on his desk, pen still in his hand. His essence was taken and he slumped out of his chair.

Out in the hallway, the puppet master laughed as his controller glowed red and yellow.

"Titans! Trouble!" Raven shouted at the end of the hall. She had felt an evil presence and went to investigate. Cyborg and Beast Boy hurried. Well, Cyborg did, Beast Boy kinda slumped out.

"What's up?!"

"Hello Titans, you look lively...come my puppets!"

Beast Boy and Cyborg watched in horror as Starfire and Robin's bodies emerged from their rooms, eyes glowing an eerie blue.

"No..." Raven whispered.

"Yes!" He laughed.

"Cover me!" Raven shouted at her teammates.

Cyborg approached Starfire. "Now girl, you know I don't want to fight..."

She didn't hear him, just punched his chest and sent him flying backwards. He shouted until he hit the back wall.

"She's dangerous when she holds nothing back."

Beast Boy attacked Robin as a hawk. Robin ducked and swatted at the bird as Beast Boy clawed at his face, trying to distract him.

All Raven needed to do was concentrate. Her energy surrounded the device and snapped it in half. It sparked but did not completely break. Robin and Starfire fell to the ground in a heap.

Puppet master gathered the broken pieces. "We will meet again Titans, we will meet again!" He laughed and then disappeared into a puff of smoke.

"Dude, that guy gives me the creeps!" Beast Boy shivered.

"No doubt!" Cyborg agreed.

Robin and Starfire stirred from the ground.

"What happened?" Robin asked.

"You were right dude, puppet master's back. He got you two first this time. He's gone now, though."

Robin looked at him in confusion. What did he mean by, 'you were right'?

"It's probably best if we go back to bed, we'll resume this in the morning." Starfire said in a very un-Starfire like way. She seemed to realize what she said and looked at her team in confusion. No one seemed to notice. Well except Robin. He clapped his hand over his mouth to keep from shrieking.

"Goodnight ya'll, don't let the possessed puppet bedbugs bite."

The rest of the team left, leaving the other two alone. Robin gaped at Starfire. She put a finger to her lips and pulled them into Star's room.

"Robin! What has happened?!" Robin's body asked while freaking out.

"I don't know...seems that we've had a similar experience as you and Raven had last year."

"Yes! But that was different! You and our other friends were in danger! I was still a girl and now I am a boy! I cannot be a boy! A short one with no powers at that!"

"Wow. Thanks." Robin spoke from Starfire's mouth.

"But you are in my body! You do not know how to control my powers and I do not know how to fight as you do!"

"It's all muscle memory, you should do it automatically." He spoke as he picked up a metal object from the table.

"But I do not know if I can..."

"Trust me." And he chucked the object at her face as top speed without warning. She caught it an inch from her face.

"Whoa..."

"Told you." He sighed. "Look, let's just get back to bed, and we can figure this out is the morning."

She gulped. "I am to go sleep in your room?"

"Um...yeah? It wouldn't make sense to the others if Starfire was sleeping in Robin's room and vis-versa? We have to keep this a secret."

"Why? Would it not be so much easier if we told them?"

"Can you imagine the teasing that will come along with it?"

Robin's face visibly paled. "They must never know."

"Exactly. Now go on back to bed. Come here as soon as you wake up and we'll figure out a plan from there."

"Okay." She sighed. "Sweet Shlorvaks."

"Night."

Starfire left in Robin's body.

In Starfire's room, Robin turned out the light and groaned. "Seriously?" A strange lamp emitted a strange light from the corner. A display of stars appeared across the ceiling and walls. Random red circles marked some of the orbs. "You have to use a nightlight?" He went over and unplugged the lamp. In the dark, he found his way to the pink, stuffed animal infested bed. He tucked underneath the covers, as he usually would, but was uncomfortable. He tossed and turned, and removed the torque and armbands. Nothing worked.

"Maybe Tamaranians sleep differently." He turned on his stomach, curled in a ball, with butt up, on back with pillow covering face, and hugging his arms to his chest. Still, nothing worked. "Oohhhh mmmmyyyyy ggggooossshhhhh..." He whined, frustrated.

Finally, he laid on top of the covers, with his head hanging off the side. Instantly, he became drowsy and soon fell asleep.

In Robin's room, Starfire had catapulted to the bed, trying to stay away from the darkness. The eerie blue halogen light from the hallway seeped in under the floor and casted shadows against the wall. Starfire pulled the covers up to her masked eyes. The shadows illuminated the evidence on the wall. Slade's mask almost came alive.

"That is why I did not want to sleep in this room!" She whimpered. She laid down, with the covers still over her head. The mask moved. She adjusted back to place, but it moved again. She sighed, "maybe he does not sleep with his mask on." She peeled it off and set in on the bedside table. In the dark, she reached her hand up to touch the place where his eyes were. They felt wide, exposing. What she wouldn't give to see them. Bit that was an invasion of privacy that he had not given her, Regardless if she had possession of his body. She soon fell asleep, so hard that she didn't dream.

The next morning, Robin's body instantly woke up at 6. Starfire groaned, she didn't want to get up. She knew Robin wouldn't be awake yet, in fact none of the other titans would be. That fact aside, she willed herself to get out of the warm comforter. The room felt less menacing with the sunlight coming under the curtain. She threw them open and let the light cover her face. Instead of the warm sense of thrill and energy she was expecting, the light hurt her eyes and she had to draw back. She rubbed her eyes and blinked a few times.

"Well, I believe he does not like the sun so much."

She stepped into the restroom to check his appearance. Turning swiftly, she had just barely caught a glimpse of his eyes. She threw the mask over her eyes and adjusted it in the mirror.

"This will be more difficult then I first imagined." She spent a half hour trying to make his hair stand up like he usually styled it, but the gel stuck to her hands unpleasantly.

"Maybe his so called muscle memory will kick in?" She closed his eyes behind the mask and raised his hands. Amazingly, she whipped through his hair and within a few seconds, his hair was perfectly spiked. She took on a fighting stance and smiled in the mirror.

"Oh my..." She gulped, a little unused to that charming smile. She shook herself out of it. "Alright, I believe he goes and trains first thing in the morning, which I will not do without his coaching. I believe he does paper work until breakfast...which I will also not do, because I do not know that much about it."

Then again, she didn't know much about him anyways. Well, most things. The temptation to remove the mask was great. "One little peek should not matter..." His hand came up to peel it off, but Star grabbed it with the other hand and shoved it away. "No Robin's hand! You shall not cause me to sin!"

She slapped her face. "Okay, take a deep breath. You are in Robin's body, and you must respect his privacy. Do not do anything stupid, and simply wait for Robin's direction."

She looked over at the clock. 6:30. "He told me to come when I woke up. Oh well."

Using stealth, she slipped across the hall and into her room. Inside, she gave a huff. He had turned out the light. THE light. This was not exactly good.

She threw open the blind, and her out body just barely twitched. Starfire sighed. "This is what I was afraid of." She went over to him and lightly touched his face. "Robin, it is time to awaken."

He didn't budge.

She huffed and then wound up. "I am very sorry my friend." She released a resounding 'thwack' on his face.

"Hmm...whaa? Aaauuuuggghhhh..." He groaned.

"You turned the light off, did you not?"

A grunt was his reply.

"My body gets energy from Ultra Violet light. That lamp gives off just enough so that I can wake up in the morning."

"Uhhhh...mmrrgggh..ssaaaauugghhhhh..."

"I except your apology, now we most get you recharged. Climb upon my back."

"Aaauuugghhhh cccccaaaughhh..."

"Well, then how do you expect to get up to the roof?"

One of his hands came up and wiggled fingers at her.

She released a huff and lifted his body from the bed. He wrapped his arms around her neck and dangled in her arms. She sighed and took him up to the roof.

Up there, Robin laid on the edge of the roof, limp like a noodle. Starfire sat next to him, watching the sunrise.

"I hope you have learned your lesson. I shall not be carrying you up here every morning, so be sure to leave the light on."

Robin let out a feeble groan. He had full realization of the fact that she did not talk like him, at all. That was something that would have to be fixed.

After a while, Robin sat up, barely awake. His hair was huge, poofy and a mess of curls. He yawned. "So...what are we going to do?" He asked, wearily.

"Why do you ask me?"

"You're the leader. Everyone's going to ask you questions."

She visibly wilted. Then straightened up. "I believe it shall be beneficial to teach you to use my powers. Let us get started." She stood.

He followed, staggering.

She peered over the edge. "Marvelous! Lesson number one, my flight is driven by unbridled joy."

He blinked. He may not have been as stoic as Raven or his mentor, but he had a pretty big cap on his emotions. "Okay...can you elaborate?"

"Think of a wonderful thought! About things that make you happy! Such as...oh! As they do in the movie of Peter Pan!"

He stared at her. "Seriously?" He droned.

"Yes! The more jovial the thought, the more powerful the flight! You may think of a box of kittens, or perhaps ice cream-"

"I like ice cream." He decided. He hovered a few inches.

She jumped and clapped. "Wonderful! Most exquisite! Now, in battle, you must keep that wonderful thought strong, no matter what other emotion you may be feeling at the time."

"Okay."

"Let us practice this. Catch me!" And she jumped off the side.

"What are you, nuts?!" He dove after her, the thought of ice cream completely gone from his mind.

His hand was a couple inches from hers. "Happythoughthappythoughthappythoughthappythought!" He repeated as he panicked. He grabbed her hand and it hit him.

'She's holding my hand...' He blushed and shot up into the sky at lightning speed. He began to spiral out of control as he started thinking about her. Her hair, her eyes.

"Robin! You must focus on one thought!"

How was he supposed to do that? He maneuvered back to the tower and approached the roof at an alarming rate.

"Just think of bunnies!" She cried.

He quickly clear his mind except a single image of a fluffy baby bunny. He came to a screeching halt and slowly sunk back to the roof.

"Okay." She started. "Your landing was nice..." Then she became infuriated. "What in dredthax four were you thinking about!?" She shouted.

He shifted awkwardly and scratched his still very fluffy hair. "Uh...well...nothing particular."

"You are lying. That was a very powerful thought, now please, what was it?" She became sad. "Did you imagine me not talking as well?"

"What? No! I was...oh Glorpa!" The word was out of his mouth before he could stop himself.

She gasped. "I did not know you possessed such a potty mouth!"

"Your body, your language, not my fault!"

"So what were you thinking about?" She pressed.

He groaned. "Look, it's something personal, and I don't want to tell you. I'm sorry."

She gave a soft smile. "It is fine, I understand." Then she grew mischievous. "But I will find out."

He blushed. "I doubt it." He ran his fingers through his new massive hair, trying in vain to relieve the tangles. "Alright, we really really need to work on your acting skills."

She pouted. "I am very capable of acting as you do."

"Well then, go on and inspire me."

She put her mouth into a firm line and then puffed out her chest. "I am Robin! I do not like goofing around when there is work to be done!" Insert pointer finger. "And furthermore, I am a grump with nothing better to do then obsess over Slade! Titan's go!" She took an epic stance, one hand on her hip and one pointing to an unidentified spot.

Robin bit his lip and snorted. Then he fell to the ground in a fit of laughter.

She put both hands on her hips. "Let us see if you can do any better!"

"Is that a challenge?" He cracked his knuckles and floated an inch. He clasped his hands together and batted his eyelashes. "Oh Robin! You are such the deepest friend! I know I may not understand everything about Earth, but you have the patience to tell me. I thank you from the bottom of my heart." The coup de grace was when he threw his arms around her and gave a contented high pitched sigh.

She frowned. "Well, I should think I should be calling the police force, since you have obviously been stalking me."

He laughed. "Hey, look, we just spent a lot of time around each other, and I've sort of picked up your mannerisms."

"But...you are so much more difficult to perceive!"

"Just try it again, keep it simple."

She gave another sigh. Then she crossed her arms and gave a curt nod. "Sup?"

Again, he doubled over in laughter. "Much better!"

"Then why are you laughing at me?!"

"Because you're hilarious!"

"Aahh! Say it as I would have!"

"You are most entertaining." He smiled.

She snapped her fingers in defeat. "...Zarnarf..."

"How about this, until you get the hang of things, why don't you just stay quiet and act like you're tired and grumpy?"

"Like so?" She crossed her arms with a frown and wearily gave a grunt.

"Perfect! Now let's...er," his voice raised a bit. "Let us go and celebrate the breaking of fast with our friends!"

"It is very bizarre to hear you speaking in such a way...oh! Uh...grunt mumble mumble..."

An ounce of trepidation fled through his body. This was going to be rough.

'Starfire' entered the room first. "Friends! It is joyous to see you this fine morning." 'She' beamed.

Raven acknowledged from the couch. Robin missed the sly smile on her face. She knew. She had known since last night, but if they wanted to keep it a secret, then so be it.

Beast Boy and Cyborg were in the kitchen, diligently cooking their food to shove down each others' throats.

Still feeling like a leader, Robin approached the two and decided to try and unite the two fronts, using Starfire's adorable-ness to his advantage.

"Friends! Why must we always fight over the meat and to-fu? Cannot Beast Boy simply eat his own meal, while Cyborg cooks his meat?"

Cyborg grinned. "You heard the little lady, asparagus breath! Stay on that side!"

Beast Boy sneered. "Fine then!"

The boy wonder grinned. "This is so easy!" He laughed inside.

The Starfire came in the door in her powerless body. She was dredging along like a lost soul. Robin almost felt bad for her if hadn't know she was faking.

"Dude, you look like death warmed over, what happened?"

"Grumble mumble mumble..."

"What?" He looked perplexed.

Robin intervened. "Maybe our friend is in need of caffeine!" He chirped.

Beast Boy quickly grabbed a mug and filled it with coffee, knowing full and well how grumpy the teen could get when deprived of his heavenly beverage.


End file.
